Tag: Snow

The Arctic represents the northermost area of the World, the Arctic Ocean and the land areas that surrounds it. The region is characterized but cold temperatures, and ice and snow. The summers are short, but with long pe...

Sudden releases of water into the Spitamen district from Kyrgyzstan are regularly endangering the neighboring Tajik arable land downstream and villages along the river. The Tajik communities are convinced upstream Kyrgyz...

Measurements on this valley-type glacier in the North Chuyskiy Range show a slightly negative annual mass balance trend culminating in an ice loss of about 4 m water equivalent over the period 1964–2005.

Data from satellite monitoring from 1966 to 2005 show that mean monthly snow-cover extent in the Northern Hemisphere is decreasing at a rate of 1.3 per cent per decade. For the calendar year of 2006 average snow-cover ex...

Projected Arctic annual land temperature increases for the first half of the 21st century relative to the average temperature for 1980–99. The average of the IPCC models (the blue line) shows an increase of 3ºC by 2050. ...

The figure shows rates at which the ice-sheet mass was estimated to be changing based on radar-altimeter data (black), mass-budget calculations (red), and satellite gravity measurements (blue). Rectangles depict the time...

Snow and the various forms of ice - the cryosphere - play different roles within the climate system. The two continental ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland actively influence the global climate over time scales of mi...

The albedo for different surface conditions on the sea ice range widely, from roughly 85 per cent of radiation reflected for snow-covered ice to 7 per cent for open water. These two surfaces cover the range from the larg...

Close to 50 per cent of the glaciers in Africa, on the Rwenzori Mountains, Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro have disappeared, while larger glaciers – particularly on Kilimanjaro – have been fragmented. Changes in glacier area...

Using one specific climate change model (ECHAM5) and the SRES A2 emission scenario (run 2) the projected loss of snow amounts to decreases of 60–80 per cent in monthly maximum snow water equivalent over most middle latit...

In spring, the ice is snow-covered and there is very little open water. Most sunlight is reflected, but some is absorbed. This absorbed sunlight leads to melting, which in turn reduces the ice albedo and increases the am...

Significant loss of glaciers in Central Asia began around the 1930s, and become more dramatic in the second half of the 20th century and continue into the 21st century. Glacier area was reduced in the Tien Shan and in th...

Examination of regional trends in spring snow-cover duration from 1969–2003 using NOAA snow-cover data shows the western United States to be among the regions with the strongest decreases. This supports results from stud...

The Himalayas–Hindu Kush, Kunlun Shan, Pamir and Tien Shan mountain ranges function as water towers, providing water to people through much of Asia. The glacier-fed rivers originating from the Himalaya mountain ranges su...

Large Alpine glaciers have retreated continuously since the mid- 19th century, whereas steep mid-sized glaciers reacted with readvances in the 1890s, 1920s and between the 1970s and 1980s due to the somewhat cooler and w...

Glaciers and ice caps form around the world where snow deposited during the cold/humid season does not entirely melt during warm/dry times. This seasonal snow gradually becomes denser and transforms into perennial firn (...

The ice cover in Greenland and Antarctica has two components – thick, grounded, inland ice that rests on a more or less solid bed, and thinner floating ice shelves and glacier tongues. An ice sheet is actually a giant gl...

Mountain snow cover typically develops in the autumn and grows to a maximum depth in early spring. As day length and sun angles increase, so do air temperatures, causing snow cover to warm and begin to melt. Snow cover ...

Snow occurs predominantly on the northern continents, on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean and on Antarctica. On the Northern Hemisphere continents, snow covers a maximum mean area of 45.2 million km2, typically in January...

The tropical Lewis Glacier retreated by more than 800 m between 1893 and 2004 and lost almost 16 m water equivalent of its thickness between 1979 and 1996. Located on Mount Kenya, this is one of few locations in Africa w...